Ridership climbs across Norman transit services; council to consider Embark security contract

Taylor (transit staff) told the Community Planning and Transportation Committee on Jan. 23 that ridership across fixed-route and paratransit services rose in November and December compared with the prior year and that the city will ask the City Council next week to consider a contract amendment with Embark to provide security at the transit center.

Taylor said November ridership for fixed route and paratransit was “just shy of 42,000” rides, about 10,000 more than the previous November, and that December ridership was about 38,000 compared with about 31,000 the prior December. Staff projected the fiscal-year total could reach roughly 450,000 to 480,000 rides, up from about 400,000 the prior year.

The memo also noted a separate on-demand service, Norman on Demand, had year-over-year increases. Taylor said, “For November, we were just shy of 4,000 rides ... that's about 1,000 more than last November, or 37%,” and described December growth as smaller but still about 22% year over year. Taylor added that service productivity is strong, with about 6.0 service-hour riders fiscal year to date and 6.2 in December.

Taylor told the committee the city will ask council to approve a contract amendment with Embark that would place a security contractor (the same vendor Embark uses in Oklahoma City) at the Norman transit center beginning Feb. 1 if council approves the item. The amendment, as described by Taylor, would initially fund an eight-hour-a-day presence Monday–Saturday (staff cited options of roughly 2 p.m.–8 p.m. or 2 p.m.–10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m.–7 p.m. on Saturdays) and staff said they would monitor effects and report back to the committee as needed.

Staff also reported an equipment update: six cutaway/shuttle buses ordered for the paratransit fleet are delayed to March because the compressed natural gas (CNG) conversions are taking longer than anticipated. Taylor said the units are intended to replace older vehicles that need retirement.

On customer performance, Taylor said Norman on Demand’s average rider wait time currently “is hovering for this fiscal year around 22 minutes,” above the staff target of 15 minutes, and that the average walking distance for trips is about 0.06 miles (staff target below 0.1 miles). Taylor said the contractor Via operates Norman on Demand and that the city submitted the service for consideration in the annual budget process for continued funding.

Council members asked staff about trip purposes and demographic patterns. Taylor said Embark recently completed a customer satisfaction survey and staff plan to return to the committee this spring with more detailed trip-purpose and origin-destination data and possibly a consultant presentation. Mayor Hackerson asked whether staff had demographic breakdowns; Taylor said staff would follow up with those results when available.

The committee recorded no formal vote on the item during the meeting; staff said the security amendment will go to the full council for consideration on the next council agenda.